Chicago Cubs Lose to Los Angeles Dodgers | Game Two – NLDS

The Dodgers return to Los Angeles in full tow of a 2-0 game lead with a 10-3 win over the favored and beloved Cubs on Thursday night. The loss in Game Two of the NLDS came as a result of a disastrous second inning flop by the Chicago Cubs that left the team and their fans emotionally drained and ready for a long, cold winter in Wrigleyville.

Carlos Zambrano, the emotional ace for the Cubs looked early on as if he was the same pitcher that shut down the Houston Astros in September for the teams’ first no-no since the blue glove of Milt Pappas. But after what would turn out to be a costly miscue from one of the most reliable second basemen in the league (Mark DeRosa’s boot of a routine grounder that kicked out of his glove forcing a wide throw to second), the Dodgers scored their first run of the night and kept rolling from there. After the miscue Zambrano was visibly shaken, jumping up and down shaking his head, and if you looked close enough you could even see his spirit being drained.

“It just got on me good,” DeRosa said of DeWitt’s ball. “He hit it good. It’s probably a play I should’ve taken a little bit more time on. I’m sure he wasn’t out of the box before that ball got to me. I should’ve backed up on it and given Ryan a nice, easy feed.

“We were the best team in a marathon,” Chicago’s Mark DeRosa said. “Now we have to win a sprint.”

The very next play on another potential double play grounder off the bat of Dodger outfielder Casey Blake was knocked down by Cub first baseman and Gold Glove candidate Derrick Lee but was unable to corral the hard hit grounder to load the bases.

“We kicked the ball all over tonight,” Lee said. “I have no explanation for it. We haven’t played well all around. Tonight, I don’t think we gave ourselves much of a chance. We shot ourselves in the foot from the get-go. Tonight was defense.

“I’m not surprised, I’m shocked,” Zambrano said. “We have a good defense.’D-Lee,’ for me, is the best first baseman. He had an error. Also Ramirez. It’s weird. I think it’s the first time you see four people in the infield make an error.

Dodger’s catcher Russell Martin emptied the bases with one of the most crowd quieting doubles that you will ever see to give the Dodgers a heart wrenching 5-0 lead rendering Zambrano to nothing but a shell on the mound.

“I don’t think you can win 97 ballgames playing that way,” said Cubs manager Lou Piniella, whose team clinched the National League Central with a 97-64 mark. “It wasn’t good baseball. In fact, the last two days, they’ve probably been the worst games we’ve played all year from a walking and errors standpoint. It wasn’t fun to watch, I can tell you that.”

The Cubs lost any hope of a comeback in the top of the fifth when Manny Ramirez cracked his second round tripper of the playoffs over Jim Edmonds head and into the basket for a 6-0 lead shattering any hopes of a rally at the friendly confines’

“I can’t explain it,” Jim Edmonds said. “I don’t know — it’s pretty embarrassing. We just haven’t been playing like we normally play. We’ve made some mistakes and when we’ve gotten a guy on, we haven’t moved him over and we haven’t driven anybody in. That’s what you have to do in the playoffs and that’s what good teams do, and we haven’t been good yet.”

After the smoke cleared, Zambrano left the game after the Ramirez homer giving up six runs (four unearned in the second) and seven strikeouts.

The Cubs are hopeful of a game three comeback behind the arm of mid season acquisition Rick Harden, who ironically the Cubs picked up to shore up their rotation for a World Series run. The Cubs are looking to try to avoid a three game sweep (AGAIN!!!!) for the second year in a row.

[tags]chicago cubs, los angeles dodgers, mlb, mlb playoffs, baseball, carlos zambrano, lou piniella[/tags]

Tags: baseball, carlos zambrano, chicago cubs, lou piniella, MLB, mlb playoffs

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